Sandi Pedersen

MIRACLE WIMP, by Erik P. Kraft, Little, Brown Young readers, paperback $7.99; ages 12 and up. Tom Mayo, otherwise known as Miracle...

Four books not to miss this month.

We are back in the groove. School, homework, reading assignments, soccer practice, gymnastics, piano lessons, go to bed early, get up early-we've only been in school one month and it feels like summer was a million years ago. And I'm the mom; I'm not even the one going to school.

My kids and I were in the car and one of our favorite songs came on the radio, Sheryl Crow’s "All I Wanna Do." We were smiling at each other and singing very loudly when it hit me: That is what this column is all about. All of these books are fun. That’s it. Fun.

Kati,” I say, “how about a weekend in Minnesota, just the two of us?” Kati, my 14-year-old, just shrugs. “C’mon Kati, we’ll stay in a hotel, eat out, it’ll be fun.” No response. I pull out my trump card. “We can go to the Mall of America.” “OK,” she says. “Let’s go.”

Kylie,” I call, “we need to start writing our article about Hawaii. Have you been thinking about it?” She answers, “How many words does it have to be?” (I’m proud. She’s learning writer’s lingo.) “About 850 words,” I say. “That’s easy,” she says, “just type the word beautiful 850 times.”

Orlando, Fla. by Sandi Pedersen "Sofie, are you having a fun vacation?" "I'm having billions of fun," she said....

A weekend in Denver sounded intriguing, but I had no idea it would be so much fun.

My family and I have been to Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa in Florida but